"It won't happen because the need for bespoke software will always be present.
The landscape is changing, but that doesn't mean doom or gloom."

I think that maybe you are the one missing the point. Do you understand what happens if microsoft's locked down metro platform becomes successful? It represents yet another personal computing platform that has monopolised distribution rights. If we don't actively protest them today, these restricted platforms have the potential to become the defacto norm for consumers in the future. Whether this is doom or gloom is open to your opinion, but this kind of change in landscape is exactly what I've been describing as closed computing. Open computing is responsible for building the entire software industry to what it is today. Software development would not be anywhere near as pervasive as it is today if not for the openness of computers we have benefited from up to this point.

I'm disappointed that people are being blinded by fanboy fetishes when so much is at stake. If another entity were to step in and do the exact same thing, it would be an unmitigated disaster. People would be up in arms if a government stepped in to regulate software developers, charging taxes, forcing us to apply for the right to distribute and sell our own software to consumers. Yet this is exactly the model apple and microsoft are pushing us into, with themselves in control of everyone's software. There's just too much conflict of interest in allowing top oligopolists to control the fate of the software industry.